[scribus] Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Publisher files

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:47:37 +0100
"a.l.e" <ale.comp_06 at xox.ch> dijo:

>> Having said that, it may be a demanding task. What happens when the
>> Publisher/InDesign/QuarkXPress file contains tables created in those
>> apps? I could mention a lot of other features that would be hard to
>> translate into Scribus, especially considering that the other file
>> formats are closed source and proprietary. Why would Adobe, Microsoft
>> or Quark assist in creating a tool that would help their users
>> migrate away from their product.

>i think it was just a commercial for the conversion service on his
>site.

Markzware is in the business of providing conversion tools and plugins
for QuarkXPress, Publisher and InDesign. I thought the post was to
assess the possibilities of an import tool for Scribus. After all, they
have import filters for the others, so they are already familiar with
the file formats. 

I suspect they will discover that Scribus users will not likely pay the
price they are accustomed to getting for their other tools. Their
conversion software comes as separate packages for just one program to
another, e.g., Publisher to InDesign is one package, QuarkXPress to
InDesign is another package, and so on. Most of their packages are at
least $100, and some sell for several hundred dollars. If they made
import tools so that Scribus could import InDesign, QuarkXPress and
Publisher files it would be three packages and would probably cost
around $300 for all three. I sure wouldn't pay that.

While I think it would be hard for Markzware to make any money at it, I
wouldn't want to discourage them. Having such tools available would
facilitate users of those programs moving to Scribus. And Markzware
would also advertise the products, helping to make users of those
layout packages aware of Scribus. I'd bet most users of InDesign,
QuarkXPress and Publisher have never heard of Scribus. 

On the other hand, if Markzware made a table plugin for Scribus I'd pay
for it. I really need tables.